The movie begins with a High School student named
Jerry preparing to go to school in his car. As he arrives
he keeps hearing rumors about a new guy that transferred
in named Buddy. Everyone hears rumors about how tough
Buddy is and all the people he beat up or maimed at his
old school. Jerry meets him in the bathroom and attempts
to interview him for the school paper. Jerry makes one
mistake though, he touches Buddy and my how Buddy hates
to be touched. Buddy tells Jerry at 3 O'Clock in the
parking lot they are going to fight.

Jerry thinks of ways to get out of this big fight. He
figures there is no way out when a gigantic switchblade
knife is found attached to his locker with a note about
the fight. Jerry puts the knife in his pocket and gets
caught with it by the principal who has a talk with Jerry
about how this could ruin his college transcript.

As Jerry's day slowly moves forward to fight time,
Jerry has another idea to get out of the fight. He will
just drive away from the school early during a Pep Rally.
Jerry reaches his car and discovers its been sabatoged to
not crank. Buddy sure is determined to have this fight.

Jerry decides since he is small that he can just pay
someone to scare Buddy off. A larger older kid agrees to
beat Buddy up for a price. Jerry steals money from the
school's store and turns the money over to his protector.
Jerry got into the cash register at the store by
repeatedly bashing it with a fire extinguisher. It is
quite funny to see. Jerry is questioned about this and it
seems the authorities know he is behind it.

In the library Jerry's paid protector approaches Buddy
and touches Buddy while telling him to leave Jerry alone.
Buddy then turns about and hits this guy dead in the
face. His nose is broken and he is unable to deter
Buddy's quest to fight Jerry. Jerry only gets back some
of the money he gave to this guy because of his injuries.

Jerry next tries to pay off Buddy. He hands him a wad
of cash and it seems the problem is solved. Shortly after
doing this Jerry gets a sudden sense of pride and demands
his money back and for the fight to go on. Buddy will not
give the money back, and now Jerry is quite mad.

At 3 O'Clock Jerry and Buddy emerge from the schools
doors and meet each other in the parking lot. The whole
school is there to watch the fight. At first it appears
Buddy will win. Jerry gains access to Buddy's brass
knuckles and then its all over. The fight took place on
cars, on the concrete and near the crowd. It was quite a
spectacle to see as even the principal and many other
school officials watch nearby without intervening.

After Jerry's victory over Buddy's, Jerry worries
about how the school will deal with his theft of money
from the school store. As the store opens the next day,
everyone wants to buy paper from him for a dollar a sheet
to help Jerry recover the store money which was lost.
Buddy himself arrives on the scene to give Jerry his
money back from earlier.

Three O'Clock high was an obscure film from 1987 that
many critics didn't much care for. In fact Steven
Spielberg the executive producer of the film asked to
have his name removed from the credits because he didn't
want to be associated with the film at all. Regardless of
this the movie presents the struggles of a student's day
in High School complete with a fear of a fight at 3, the
attractions of an English teacher and all the other
aspects of a teenage film that are not as much profound
as they are plain fun.